Benson-Lehner Corporation

Last updated
Benson-Lehner Corporation
Company typePublic
Industry Data Processing
Founded1950;74 years ago (1950) in Santa Monica, California
Founders Bernard Benson and George Lehner
FateAcquired by United Gas Corporation in 1965

Benson-Lehner Corporation was an early digital technology company that initially made plotters and other input-output devices that were purchased by branches of the U.S. government during the Cold War. It later marketed high-speed precision cameras used for similar military applications, including nuclear bomb and missile testing. Benson-Lehner’s executives were almost entirely WW2 veterans. Its founders were Bernard Benson, a former British Spitfire pilot, and George Lehner, a UCLA psychology professor and inventor. Benson-Lehner was initially based in Santa Monica and had manufacturing plants in England and France. It was later headquartered in West Los Angeles and Van Nuys.

Contents

Business model

Benson-Lehner's primary business was producing and selling electronic plotting machines that would take tables of X and Y-coordinate data and plot them out on paper, providing a graphical representation of the data. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Other Products

Key Figures

Legacy

The company was acquired by United Gas Corporation in 1964 [19] to further that entity’s strategic interest in operating data processing centers for military and civil government agencies. [2] Benson retired to France, where he purchased a chateau in the Dordogne and became involved with world peace initiatives. He eventually donated his chateau to an order of Tibetan monks. [20]

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